Setting Your Calorie and Macro Targets

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Replies

  • huggiesbear78
    huggiesbear78 Posts: 14 Member
    Thank you for your reply Heybales

    The workouts I do are weight based for about an hour. I also try to add 3 10 min HIIT sessions in a week.

    I currently use a FitBit blaze to give rough data ideas of what I have done that day. I aim to complete 10000 steps a day with me being office based. I do have kids so that always helps with the steps lol.

    So the calories above are 2164 to lose weight. If my exercise burns 500 calories, should I then up my calories to 2664?

    My FitBit is linked to MFP app so shows a rough calorie count each day.

    Thank you for the doc, I will have a look

    Rhys

  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    So the method of the OP discusses is tweaking MFP's normal usage to weekly avg TDEE method - set calories and macros.

    10K steps, no where near sedentary, but using that sheet and keep it at having kids but desk job.

    4.5 hrs weekly lifting, 30 min intense cardio.

    That's giving a more realistic sounding TDEE of 3378.

    Take reasonable deficit from that and eat that daily.


    Unless you want to use MFP's method - in which case set Activity Level to Lightly-Active you actually are.
    You would log your workouts - not based on Fitbit's HR-based calorie burn though - totally invalid for all your workouts.
    Just log Weights on Fitbit, and if HIIT is running, whatever the avg pace ends up being for those 10 min.

    MFP will adjust itself correctly, and your eating goal will go up.

    Sadly the macros stay by %, so the quantity goes up too.

    So I'd estimate the % by 2750 eating goal for now (though it won't be) based on your existing math.

    That way when MFP increases - it's just fine.
  • FiiiiFiiiFlowerTot
    FiiiiFiiiFlowerTot Posts: 102 Member


    Protein: 1 x 150 x 0.8 (LBM) = 120g x 4 calories = 480 calories divided by 2,000 (calorie target) = 24% - round up to 25%
    Fat: 0.35 x 150 = 53.5g x 9 calories = 473 calories divided by 2,000 = 24% - round up to 25%
    Carbs: balance of 50%


    Can someone help me with ^^^, i weight 168 lbs, with 1200 calorie target.
    Mine came back as 45% Protein, 45% Fat and 44% Carbs....

  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member

    Protein: 1 x 150 x 0.8 (LBM) = 120g x 4 calories = 480 calories divided by 2,000 (calorie target) = 24% - round up to 25%
    Fat: 0.35 x 150 = 53.5g x 9 calories = 473 calories divided by 2,000 = 24% - round up to 25%
    Carbs: balance of 50%


    Can someone help me with ^^^, i weight 168 lbs, with 1200 calorie target.
    Mine came back as 45% Protein, 45% Fat and 44% Carbs....

    Things will change, the amount of deficit that causes 1200 should get smaller with less weight to lose, so eating closer to maintenance.
    Amount of activity that causes the daily burn (TDEE) figure you take a deficit from.

    So you will have to learn to do this, and since you merely need to plug your figures in to example given, not really that bad. Since you seem to have gotten it except the carb part - can't have more than 100%.
    I'd suggest round down though.

    Prot: 1 x 168 x 0.75 (figure 25% BF) = 126 g x 4 calories/gram = 504 calories / 1200 target = 42% - round to 40%
    Fat: 0.35 x 168 = 59 g x 9 cal/g = 531 / 1200 = 44% - round to 45%
    Carbs: 100% - 40% - 45% = 15%

    This suggests your eating level is likely too low.

    How much you have to lose until healthy weight?
  • imgritz
    imgritz Posts: 47 Member
    Based on the calculations I should 48.4% protein 60.9% fat and 0 carbs
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited June 2018
    imgritz wrote: »
    Based on the calculations I should 48.4% protein 60.9% fat and 0 carbs

    Usually that only happens if you are taking an unreasonable deficit.

    Or the math is done wrong.

    But easily the former happens, and the maths just prove it out.

    This can also happen if you selected Sedentary activity level and that's not true for the day as a whole.
    It also doesn't include the fact that exercise will increase the base eating level by the way MFP does it - compared to this topic's description is NOT using MFP method.

    How much do you have to lose until healthy weight?
  • jmath0303
    jmath0303 Posts: 71 Member
    Hello,

    I am a 24 year old 5'9 male that is 140 lbs. I average 20-30k steps a day and strength train to three times a week. What is my TDEE?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    jmath0303 wrote: »
    Hello,

    I am a 24 year old 5'9 male that is 140 lbs. I average 20-30k steps a day and strength train to three times a week. What is my TDEE?

    Steps could be small minor distance/calorie burn, or serious major distance/calorie burn - mere step count isn't totally useful by itself, but that is very active.
    How long is strength training - 3 x 15 min, or 3 x 2 hrs?
    Time matters.

    Just follow instructions in red on this.

    Just TDEE Please spreadsheet - better than rough 5 level TDEE charts from 1919 study.
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit?usp=sharing
  • jmath0303
    jmath0303 Posts: 71 Member
    heybales wrote: »
    jmath0303 wrote: »
    Hello,

    I am a 24 year old 5'9 male that is 140 lbs. I average 20-30k steps a day and strength train to three times a week. What is my TDEE?

    Steps could be small minor distance/calorie burn, or serious major distance/calorie burn - mere step count isn't totally useful by itself, but that is very active.
    How long is strength training - 3 x 15 min, or 3 x 2 hrs?
    Time matters.

    Just follow instructions in red on this.

    Just TDEE Please spreadsheet - better than rough 5 level TDEE charts from 1919 study.
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit?usp=sharing

    My strength training is about a 30 minute full body dumbbell routine. It is the M&S routine found in the garage weight section. I go for two 60 minute walks and the rest is just daily activity.
  • guinevereforr
    guinevereforr Posts: 1 Member
    Hello, i am so confused with the all the macro calculators, they all show different number... My main goal is to loose body fat (in order to loose cellulite) and define my body without bulking.

    I am 29 y.o. , 1.60 cm and 54 kg, my maintain calories when i was 20 was around 1.650-1.750 without activity. Now do 5x7 both upper lower body strength + hiit and i'm so confused how to loose fat/cellulite...

    I was in a plateau for few months and now i have decided to eat more protein and carbs, will this help me? I just want to define my body and loose this layer of fat above my muscles which makes me so depressed...

  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Some are taking pure % of calories eaten - like 40/30/30 popular now.
    But 30% protein is many time overkill. Sure you can eat it if desired, no hard - just no added benefit. But the lack of carbs to have protein that high could be a problem with workouts.

    If you were in a plateau with no weight OR measurement changes for couple months - then that level of eating was your maintenance level, or avg TDEE.

    Now, you may have logged say 1500 eaten - but if logging was inaccurate (measured rather than correctly weighed), you could be eating a decent amount more.

    You will lose the fat (be forwarned, cellulite is heriditary, loss of fat can improve the appearance of it, but it's connectivity tissue issue) by eating less than you burn - macros will more help workouts and recovery.
    Need that deficit though.

    So you can either keep potentially inaccurate logging and merely remove say 250 cal from somewhere daily.
    Or tighten up the logging accuracy and see where you are really at - which usually allows better success in the future because you have real numbers to go by.
  • xrsize4dad
    xrsize4dad Posts: 29 Member
    Just downloaded the xls and I think this has answered some questions for me. I've been logging my food and my exercise but been targeting my BMR and not my TDEE - deficit.. (Hopefully I'm getting this right..) So I hit my target macro's and what my caloric count has been not counting exercise. So like today, states BMR 1,831 + Exercise 554 and I would target to stay at or just below 1800 calories, so not enough? Should be 1,900-2,000 in this case. Wondering if that is one of the reasons I'm stalled..
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    xrsize4dad wrote: »
    Just downloaded the xls and I think this has answered some questions for me. I've been logging my food and my exercise but been targeting my BMR and not my TDEE - deficit.. (Hopefully I'm getting this right..) So I hit my target macro's and what my caloric count has been not counting exercise. So like today, states BMR 1,831 + Exercise 554 and I would target to stay at or just below 1800 calories, so not enough? Should be 1,900-2,000 in this case. Wondering if that is one of the reasons I'm stalled..

    That is an all too common mistake. As well as some websites are actually using the 1919 formula for calculating TDEE - but they still use the term BMR incorrectly. Doesn't help matters.

    And indeed eating too low can stress out the body and cause several adaptions that can slow weight loss.
    Add in stress water weight gained and weight loss could appear to stop.
    Though inches may still drop.

    You keep eating low enough, you will lose fat. Along with more desired things.
    And now the body is so stressed out - not a great way to lose fat or adhere to diet or sustain it later.

    If you are reading those figures off MFP - that 1831 is NOT BMR, that's eating goal.
    Which MFP has no issue doing the math and making the eating goal be below the BMR. Not always a great state to put body in. And sadly it's one of those things some may have no issue with - but if you do, you just caused it by testing where the line is.
  • thaevilgenius
    thaevilgenius Posts: 34 Member
    Thank you for the guidance. I'm non US so I will be using metrics instead :). I have a TDEE of 1900 and would like to use some weight and according to MFP I should be getting 1500 calories a day. As I do IF as well it suits me for now but once I hit my goal weight I will move to 3 meals to build muscles and start to exercise. For now I'm only focused on my diet and fat loss, I was at 80khs when I started few weeks ago I'm at 73.4 now (hit 72.9 just 2 days ago) and my goal is 70kg and I'm 174cm. Following the min requirements I find myself having a very balanced macro is 32c36p32f which is quite different from what MFP is giving me when selecting the option to lose 0,75kg per week (1% of weight)
  • xrsize4dad
    xrsize4dad Posts: 29 Member
    heybales wrote: »
    xrsize4dad wrote: »
    Just downloaded the xls and I think this has answered some questions for me. I've been logging my food and my exercise but been targeting my BMR and not my TDEE - deficit.. (Hopefully I'm getting this right..) So I hit my target macro's and what my caloric count has been not counting exercise. So like today, states BMR 1,831 + Exercise 554 and I would target to stay at or just below 1800 calories, so not enough? Should be 1,900-2,000 in this case. Wondering if that is one of the reasons I'm stalled..

    That is an all too common mistake. As well as some websites are actually using the 1919 formula for calculating TDEE - but they still use the term BMR incorrectly. Doesn't help matters.

    And indeed eating too low can stress out the body and cause several adaptions that can slow weight loss.
    Add in stress water weight gained and weight loss could appear to stop.
    Though inches may still drop.

    You keep eating low enough, you will lose fat. Along with more desired things.
    And now the body is so stressed out - not a great way to lose fat or adhere to diet or sustain it later.

    If you are reading those figures off MFP - that 1831 is NOT BMR, that's eating goal.
    Which MFP has no issue doing the math and making the eating goal be below the BMR. Not always a great state to put body in. And sadly it's one of those things some may have no issue with - but if you do, you just caused it by testing where the line is.

    Thanks. The BMR I referenced was from the xls, just coincidentally happen to be the figure on MFP.. I am going to use the xls and target 15% deficit as I need to lose 30-35lbs.
  • reality7001
    reality7001 Posts: 30 Member
    Sarauk2sf wrote: »
    SETTING CALORIE TARGETS:

    There are two basic ways to do this: by using the targets provided by MFP after inputting your information or by calculating your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) and taking a cut off your TDEE, assuming weight loss is the goal.

    See http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf for more discussion regarding TDEE and the two different methods, but the components of TDEE are repeated below:

    BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate): The number of calories you burn at complete rest.
    EAT (Exercise Associated Thermogenesis): Caloric requirements of training, or training expenditure.
    NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): Caloric requirements of activity that is not planned exercise. Vacuuming, driving, brushing your teeth, for example.
    TEF/DIT (Thermic Effect of Feeding or Diet Induced Thermogenesis): Caloric expense of eating/digestion.
    TDEE: (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) = Sum of the above. BMR+EAT+NEAT+TEF

    Using MFP calculated calorie goal:

    MFP will use the statistics that you input, such as age and weight, to estimate your BMR.

    There are two main variables that you select when using MFP to determine your calorie goal: activity level (NEAT) and weekly weight loss goal.

    The activity levels per MFP are as follows:
    Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
    Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesman)
    Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
    Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

    Many problems arise regarding deficits being created that are larger than desired due to the fact that people often select sedentary as a default. The descriptions in my opinion are too ‘generous’ in that most people, unless truly doing very little in the day, will not be sedentary. Factors to consider are whether you have kids that you are running around after, whether you do a lot of cooking/housework, whether you go out dancing or shopping a lot. All of these activities, while not exercise as such, will increase your energy expenditure. From personal experience, I have a desk job and am a lazy bish outside the gym and my activity level, based on actual weight loss, would have to be set at a higher than Lightly Active setting to equate to my actual NEAT.

    In summary, the higher the activity level, the higher your TDEE. If you underestimate, then you are creating a larger than expected or desired weight loss.

    If you wish to change this, go to My Home -> Goals-> Change Goals-> Continue (set at default) and update to the appropriate setting.

    General recommendations for weekly weight loss goals should be based on a number of factors, the main one of which is how much weight you have to lose. The more weight that you have to lose the less severe the negative impact of being at a calorie deficit will have generally (see below for examples).

    As a rule of thumb, we would recommend that most people set their target weight loss somewhere between .5 and 1% change in body-weight per week. So for a 200lb person, losing about 1 to 2lbs/week would be reasonable. Consider that this is not going to cover all scenarios. This is just a general guideline for "most" people. Weight may come off faster initially due to water losses.

    Obviously, the deficit that is right for you will depend on your personal circumstances and how well you deal with the deficit. For example, for someone who is morbidly obese, the health benefits of getting the weight off quickly will often outweigh the possible negative impact and, as such, a higher than 2 lb a week deficit may well be appropriate.

    Using TDEE:

    Estimating TDEE

    There are many TDEE calculators available on the interwebz. A couple of good ones are:

    http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ (but ignore the rest of the site as it's full of bs).

    Note however, these are all estimates of averages. The best determination of what your TDEE are your results. If you have been tracking for a while, you should be able to look back over a period of time and calculate what YOUR actual TDEE is. For example, say I lost 8lb over a 10 week period while eating an average of 2,000 calories a day. My TDEE would be: 2,000 x 7 days x 10 weeks (140,000) which represents the total calories consumed over the 10 week period plus 8 x 3,500 (28,000) which represents my weight loss expressed as a deficit using the 3,500 calories per pound approximation. My total expenditure over that period would be 168,000 (the 140,000 plus the 28,000) divided by 70 (7 days x 10 weeks) = 2,400 per day. This would approximate my TDEE. Obviously this number should be tweaked up or down if there is any significant change in activity. It also assumes that you have been logging your intake accurately.

    As noted above, general recommendations for weekly weight loss goals should be based on a number of factors, the main one of which is how much weight you have to lose. Using the ‘TDEE” method it is a good rule of thumb to take a cut of 20% off your TDEE, which will represent your deficit, to get to your calorie target. However, at a low BF%, this will probably be too high and a 10% cut would be more appropriate. Conversely, at when someone has a significant amount of body fat to lose, a 30% cut may well be appropriate.

    To customize your goals in order to be able to use this TDEE based method on MFP, go to My Home -> Goals-> Change Goals-> click Customize and update to the appropriate calorie target.

    Note:
    It is important to not to have too large of a deficit to minimize the negative impact of weight loss, that may include risk of loss of LBM (which can be mitigated to a large degree with strength training and adequate protein), hormonal disruption, metabolic adaptation, lower gym performance, possible lack of sufficient nutrients, lack of adherence and generally being grumpy. As noted above however, the ‘best’ deficit for an individual will depend on personal circumstances and also their sensitivity to large deficits. From my personal experience, when I got down to about a 22% BF%, I could not handle prolonged deficits of much more than about 15% on average as my gym performance suffers and I tend to whine and pout at that stage. Others may be perfectly OK on a 20% cut at that BF%.

    Also, if your results are not in line with what you expect, tweak your targets up or down as appropriate.

    SETTING MACRO TARGETS:

    There are 4 macronutrients. A high level explanation of each of their functions is:

    Protein, which is required for muscle retention/growth
    Fat, which is required for healthy body functions
    Carbs, which provide energy
    Alcohol, which provides for embarrassing photos

    Macronutrient goals should really not be based on percentages, but on grams which vary depending on your size and activity levels.

    We would recommend, as a rule of thumb, the following:

    1g of protein per lb of LBM as a minimum target

    0.35g of fat per lb of total body weight as a minimum target

    The balance can fall where you wish, taking into account performance, satiety and adherence.

    Note: the above protein minimum assumes that you are on a deficit, are undertaking moderate exercise and do not have a significantly low or significantly high body fat percentage. It also assumes that you have no pre-existing medical condition that would require a lower intake.

    At a very low body fat percentage or with highly intensive workouts a slightly higher amount of protein is recommended.

    Conversely, at a very high body fat percentage or with no or little exercise, a slightly lower amount of protein is acceptable.

    Also, at a high BF%, the fats recommendation can be decreased. If you have specific questions about this, please feel free to ask us for our input.

    When you have determined the minimum grams of protein and fat, you can calculate the corresponding percentages based on your calorie target to input into MFP. Protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram and fat has 9 calories per gram. Note that MFP only allows 5% increments so you will need to pick the one nearest your desired target.


    For example, say someone is 150 lbs with a BF% of 20% on a 2,000 calorie target. Note, a 20% body fat means that someone has a 80% lean body mass (LBM) as LBM is everything except fat (muscle, water, organs, tissue, etc). Their macros in grams would be:

    Protein: 1 x 150 x 0.8 (LBM) = 120g x 4 calories = 480 calories divided by 2,000 (calorie target) = 24% - round up to 25%
    Fat: 0.35 x 150 = 53.5g x 9 calories = 473 calories divided by 2,000 = 24% - round up to 25%
    Carbs: balance of 50%
    Remember, protein and fats are minimums and so do not worry about going over on these, carbs would be the variable in this case and you would be under on that macro in order to meet your calorie target.

    To change the MFP settings go to My Home -> Goals-> Change Goals-> click Customize and update the macros.

    Hi I have a question.

    my scale calculated a percentage for my muscle mass... Do I use that as my LBM bc it says it's only 30% which would be equal to 50g of protein for macros.

    It calculated my BF as a percentage and If I subtract my BF percentage from my total weight (& and use the 1g rule) I would get 121g for the protein amount. So what do I use?

    Thanks
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Sarauk2sf wrote: »
    SETTING CALORIE TARGETS:

    There are two basic ways to do this: by using the targets provided by MFP after inputting your information or by calculating your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) and taking a cut off your TDEE, assuming weight loss is the goal.

    See http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf for more discussion regarding TDEE and the two different methods, but the components of TDEE are repeated below:

    BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate): The number of calories you burn at complete rest.
    EAT (Exercise Associated Thermogenesis): Caloric requirements of training, or training expenditure.
    NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): Caloric requirements of activity that is not planned exercise. Vacuuming, driving, brushing your teeth, for example.
    TEF/DIT (Thermic Effect of Feeding or Diet Induced Thermogenesis): Caloric expense of eating/digestion.
    TDEE: (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) = Sum of the above. BMR+EAT+NEAT+TEF

    Using MFP calculated calorie goal:

    MFP will use the statistics that you input, such as age and weight, to estimate your BMR.

    There are two main variables that you select when using MFP to determine your calorie goal: activity level (NEAT) and weekly weight loss goal.

    The activity levels per MFP are as follows:
    Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
    Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesman)
    Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
    Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

    Many problems arise regarding deficits being created that are larger than desired due to the fact that people often select sedentary as a default. The descriptions in my opinion are too ‘generous’ in that most people, unless truly doing very little in the day, will not be sedentary. Factors to consider are whether you have kids that you are running around after, whether you do a lot of cooking/housework, whether you go out dancing or shopping a lot. All of these activities, while not exercise as such, will increase your energy expenditure. From personal experience, I have a desk job and am a lazy bish outside the gym and my activity level, based on actual weight loss, would have to be set at a higher than Lightly Active setting to equate to my actual NEAT.

    In summary, the higher the activity level, the higher your TDEE. If you underestimate, then you are creating a larger than expected or desired weight loss.

    If you wish to change this, go to My Home -> Goals-> Change Goals-> Continue (set at default) and update to the appropriate setting.

    General recommendations for weekly weight loss goals should be based on a number of factors, the main one of which is how much weight you have to lose. The more weight that you have to lose the less severe the negative impact of being at a calorie deficit will have generally (see below for examples).

    As a rule of thumb, we would recommend that most people set their target weight loss somewhere between .5 and 1% change in body-weight per week. So for a 200lb person, losing about 1 to 2lbs/week would be reasonable. Consider that this is not going to cover all scenarios. This is just a general guideline for "most" people. Weight may come off faster initially due to water losses.

    Obviously, the deficit that is right for you will depend on your personal circumstances and how well you deal with the deficit. For example, for someone who is morbidly obese, the health benefits of getting the weight off quickly will often outweigh the possible negative impact and, as such, a higher than 2 lb a week deficit may well be appropriate.

    Using TDEE:

    Estimating TDEE

    There are many TDEE calculators available on the interwebz. A couple of good ones are:

    http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ (but ignore the rest of the site as it's full of bs).

    Note however, these are all estimates of averages. The best determination of what your TDEE are your results. If you have been tracking for a while, you should be able to look back over a period of time and calculate what YOUR actual TDEE is. For example, say I lost 8lb over a 10 week period while eating an average of 2,000 calories a day. My TDEE would be: 2,000 x 7 days x 10 weeks (140,000) which represents the total calories consumed over the 10 week period plus 8 x 3,500 (28,000) which represents my weight loss expressed as a deficit using the 3,500 calories per pound approximation. My total expenditure over that period would be 168,000 (the 140,000 plus the 28,000) divided by 70 (7 days x 10 weeks) = 2,400 per day. This would approximate my TDEE. Obviously this number should be tweaked up or down if there is any significant change in activity. It also assumes that you have been logging your intake accurately.

    As noted above, general recommendations for weekly weight loss goals should be based on a number of factors, the main one of which is how much weight you have to lose. Using the ‘TDEE” method it is a good rule of thumb to take a cut of 20% off your TDEE, which will represent your deficit, to get to your calorie target. However, at a low BF%, this will probably be too high and a 10% cut would be more appropriate. Conversely, at when someone has a significant amount of body fat to lose, a 30% cut may well be appropriate.

    To customize your goals in order to be able to use this TDEE based method on MFP, go to My Home -> Goals-> Change Goals-> click Customize and update to the appropriate calorie target.

    Note:
    It is important to not to have too large of a deficit to minimize the negative impact of weight loss, that may include risk of loss of LBM (which can be mitigated to a large degree with strength training and adequate protein), hormonal disruption, metabolic adaptation, lower gym performance, possible lack of sufficient nutrients, lack of adherence and generally being grumpy. As noted above however, the ‘best’ deficit for an individual will depend on personal circumstances and also their sensitivity to large deficits. From my personal experience, when I got down to about a 22% BF%, I could not handle prolonged deficits of much more than about 15% on average as my gym performance suffers and I tend to whine and pout at that stage. Others may be perfectly OK on a 20% cut at that BF%.

    Also, if your results are not in line with what you expect, tweak your targets up or down as appropriate.

    SETTING MACRO TARGETS:

    There are 4 macronutrients. A high level explanation of each of their functions is:

    Protein, which is required for muscle retention/growth
    Fat, which is required for healthy body functions
    Carbs, which provide energy
    Alcohol, which provides for embarrassing photos

    Macronutrient goals should really not be based on percentages, but on grams which vary depending on your size and activity levels.

    We would recommend, as a rule of thumb, the following:

    1g of protein per lb of LBM as a minimum target

    0.35g of fat per lb of total body weight as a minimum target

    The balance can fall where you wish, taking into account performance, satiety and adherence.

    Note: the above protein minimum assumes that you are on a deficit, are undertaking moderate exercise and do not have a significantly low or significantly high body fat percentage. It also assumes that you have no pre-existing medical condition that would require a lower intake.

    At a very low body fat percentage or with highly intensive workouts a slightly higher amount of protein is recommended.

    Conversely, at a very high body fat percentage or with no or little exercise, a slightly lower amount of protein is acceptable.

    Also, at a high BF%, the fats recommendation can be decreased. If you have specific questions about this, please feel free to ask us for our input.

    When you have determined the minimum grams of protein and fat, you can calculate the corresponding percentages based on your calorie target to input into MFP. Protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram and fat has 9 calories per gram. Note that MFP only allows 5% increments so you will need to pick the one nearest your desired target.


    For example, say someone is 150 lbs with a BF% of 20% on a 2,000 calorie target. Note, a 20% body fat means that someone has a 80% lean body mass (LBM) as LBM is everything except fat (muscle, water, organs, tissue, etc). Their macros in grams would be:

    Protein: 1 x 150 x 0.8 (LBM) = 120g x 4 calories = 480 calories divided by 2,000 (calorie target) = 24% - round up to 25%
    Fat: 0.35 x 150 = 53.5g x 9 calories = 473 calories divided by 2,000 = 24% - round up to 25%
    Carbs: balance of 50%
    Remember, protein and fats are minimums and so do not worry about going over on these, carbs would be the variable in this case and you would be under on that macro in order to meet your calorie target.

    To change the MFP settings go to My Home -> Goals-> Change Goals-> click Customize and update the macros.

    Hi I have a question.

    my scale calculated a percentage for my muscle mass... Do I use that as my LBM bc it says it's only 30% which would be equal to 50g of protein for macros.

    It calculated my BF as a percentage and If I subtract my BF percentage from my total weight (& and use the 1g rule) I would get 121g for the protein amount. So what do I use?

    Thanks

    Those scales at best (and that means within 5% potential if a good one) are truly only measuring BF% - which you subtract to get LBM (everything but fat).
    Muscle reading is even worse accuracy, and was never a reading done in the research studies that led the the suggested protein levels.

    So 121g.
  • thanos5
    thanos5 Posts: 513 Member
    this thread is exactly what i needed today